Around We Go

Brandon Petras

Doomed to Repeat • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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God will give us opportunities to act in faith. But when we choose our own way instead of God's way, we are exposing our rebellion and distrust of God.

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Transcript

Intro

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Those of you that know me, know that I like to hunt. And my family has a camp up near Clearfield and our property is surrounded by thousands of acres of State Forest Land.

And I have been trekking through these woods for as long as I can remember. And when you get in deep enough you will find that there is nothing but wilderness for as far as the eye can see. It would be really easy to get lost if you didn’t know the land real well.

I can remember on time I was a teenager and I was hunting in an area that we call the big timber. And as far as I can tell it got that name because many years ago, long before I was born this area was timbered out.

I don’t hunt in this area anymore because I don’t enjoy having to drag a deer for 4 hours like I might have used to. But it is a beautiful section of forest covered in big tall pines. It looks even more majestic when it is snowing.

Well anyway I used to hike back in there and hunt. And I can remember one year it had started to snow. In fact it was snowing so hard that within about 2 hours there were a couple of inches on the ground, the trees were covered and you could hardly see 40 yards in front of you.

The thing about walking in the woods when it is snowing like that is that a place you are really familiar with, a place that you have been to a hundred times becomes unfamiliar territory.

The problem with this particular area is that it is all tall trees and thick underbrush, it all looks the same. And when it is snowing like that you lose your sense of direction and it is really easy to get lost.

I can remember walking through this white out snow and I thought I was going one way towards a big opening so I could get my bearings only to find that I was walking in a big circle.

unbeknownst to me, I was only a 15 minute walk to where I wanted to be, but I spent an hour just walking in circles; passing the same trees over and over again.

Finally, the snow slowed and I could get my direction reoriented and was able to get to where I thought I was heading all along.

Isn’t that a lot like how our lives tend to work? For those who are just joining us, for the last several weeks we have been going through a message series called “Doomed to Repeat”. In this series we have been looking to answer the question, why does it seem like no matter how much I want things to be different, I keep making the same mistakes, going back to the same sin that I said I was done with as if I am doomed to repeat my past over and over again.

And we have been looking at Israel’s journey from captivity to the promised land but in reverse to try to and learn from their mistakes so that we don’t have to be doomed to repeat the same ones.

So we don’t get stuck going in circles, wanting to get out, but can’t.

Power in the Text

So far we have seen Israel enter the promised land, and we have been looking at some of the things that God had to say to them right before they entered the promised land towards the end of their 40 years of wandering.

Today we are going to look at the events that led to the 40 years of wandering in the desert.

To set this up you need to know some of the things that have taken place.

So Moses has led them out of Egypt and through the red sea and to Mt. Sinai where they received the 10 Commandments and God made his covenant with them that they would be his special people, a nation of priests who would reveal God to the world.

God also made a promise to give them their own land, the promised land where they would live and worship as his people.

But here is the problem, this land was currently occupied by other nations, nations who were hostile toward God and who participated in every kind of evil in his eyes.

So part of Israels’ reward would double as judgment for these wicked people as God used the Israelites to expel them from the land

So we cut to this scene where Moses sends scouts, 12 of them to be exact, to explore the land in advance in order to report what they saw so Israel would have some idea of what they might need to do to take hold of the land.

So they return with there report and this is what they say.

Numbers 13:27-31 NLT 27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. 28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.” 30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” 31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”

The Bible tells us then that they began to spread this negative report among the people and as a result, they rebelled.

In fact, it got to the place where they were wanting to go back to Egypt, back to captivity. They believed that what God was asking them to do was so impossible that it would have been easier to stay slaves than it would have been to trust God and fight for their freedom.

Look at what God said about them in Numbers 14:11 NLT 11 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?

They had seen miracles take place that none of us have ever seen, the plagues in Egypt, the red sea, the cloud and pillar of fire, and yet despite all of that, their lack of faith led to rebellion and their desire to go back rather than forward

Big Idea

How many times have we been there? How many times have we come to the place where we know we don’t want to go back? We know we want our lives to be different. We want our legacy to be different.

But when God shows us what it is going to take to achieve that, we determine that it would be easier to go back..

To that relationship

To that job

To those friends

To that addiction

To that life

To that sin... than it would be to follow God, to trust in his promises, and walk in obedience towards freedom.

And the reality is, all of us can fall into this. Whether you are a new follower of Jesus, or someone who has served him faithfully for years because all of us have a tendency to develop amnesia when we are in the midst of our struggle.

We may have seen God do amazing things, but then forget all about that when we are asked to do the impossible.

And that brings me to the main point of today’s message. It is that when we choose our own way instead of God’s way, we are exposing our rebellion and distrust of Him.

We don’t want to call it that, but that is exactly what it is. If we find ourselves in this place where we know we want better for our lives, we are tired of feeling like we are doomed to repeat, and we call out to God and we seek his presence (week 1) and he shows us the way forward, he shows us what we must do to find freedom and we choose a different path we are revealing how little we trust him.

Look, none of us are perfect, all of us have doubts, all of us struggle with weaknesses and God’s grace makes up for our weaknesses, but God still cares about the words we say to him and about him.

When we grumble and complain against God; when we doubt his motives, actions, and plan; when we question his heart, he takes it seriously

Why it Matters

Last week we talked about God using our suffering as well as our abundance to test us. This too was a test for Israel. When they were confronted with the reality of their circumstances compared to the promises of God they had a choice to make.

They chose disbelief and distrust, and they suffered for it.

Numbers 14:21-23 NLT 21 But as surely as I live, and as surely as the earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, 22 not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have all seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice. 23 They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it.

Numbers 14:31-33 NLT 31 “ ‘You said your children would be carried off as plunder. Well, I will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised. 32 But as for you, you will drop dead in this wilderness. 33 And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness for forty years. In this way, they will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness.

Notice that it wasn’t just them that suffered, but their children and grandchildren also had to suffer for their sin. Their children should have been able to spend their youth enjoying the safety, security, and abundance of the promised land but instead they had to wander for 40 years in the desert.

Our distrust and disobedience doesn’t just affect us, it oftentimes hurts our families and even our descendents. Not because of some generational curse as some would teach, but because of a legacy that draws our loved ones away from God rather than towards him.

Rather than setting up our kids to see their parents trusting God and being faithful to God they see the opposite and often repeat what they see.

You and I may think that staying stuck is easier than moving forward, but the truth is we are constantly in motion, we never stay stuck which means if you aren’t moving forward with God you are moving backwards from him.

And it isn’t just you or I that are moving backwards. We are dragging our families with us.

Application/Closing

I wish I could tell you that they saw the error of their ways and turned it all around and didn’t have to wander for 40 years, but that wasn’t the case.

The Bible does say that they wept bitterly at the consequences of their sin. But their tears were not because of a repentant heart. They were just sorry for the consequences of their choices. They were sorry they got caught and called out.

Their response shows that their rebellious hearts were still the problem when they decided to go up to battle, but now against God’s direction and without his blessing.

God had told them to go previously but they had missed the opportunity to do so in his way and in his time. The window for obedience had closed.

They went anyway and were devastatingly defeated because they were still being disobedient in their hearts.

Similarly, God offers us grace, but there are still consequences for missed opportunities to obey God. Using God’s grace as an excuse to do what we want is a perversion.

It reveals our deep misunderstanding of God’s grace as well as our rebellious heart—and God does not take rebellion lightly.

Jesus’ sacrifice covered every sin that had ever been committed and every sin that had yet to be committed. His grace is abundant and we do not have to live in shame or fear of condemnation if we put our hope and trust in him.

We can be forgiven, and while forgiveness removes our guilt, it doesn’t always remove the consequences. Sometimes, even in forgiveness, our missed opportunities to trust and obey God can lead to consequences that last a long time.

If you and I hope to no longer be doomed to repeat our own past mistakes and sin, then we have to be willing to do things his way, and in his timing, but with that also comes his blessing and his power.

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